Alex Haley 1412

Caption from poster__     " Either you deal with what is the reality,  or you can be sure that the reality is  going to deal with you."     Alexander Murphy Palmer Haley was born in Ithaca, New York. He was the oldest child of Simon Alexander and Bertha Palmer Haley. At the time of his birth, his father was a graduate student at Cornell University and his mother was a music teacher. As a young boy, Alex Haley first learned of his African ancestor, Kunta Kinte, by listening to the family stories of his maternal grandparents while spending his summers in Henning, Tenn- essee. According to family history, Kunta Kinte landed with other Gambian Africans in “Napolis” (Annapolis, Maryland) where he was sold into slavery. Alex Haley’s quest to learn more about his family history resulted in his writing the Pulitzer Prize-winn- ing book Roots. The book has been published in 37 languages, and was made into the first week-long television mini-series, viewed by an estimated 130 million pe